An increasing number of stock investors in Korea are using mobile gadgets, including smartphones and tablet PCs, for their trading, the Korea Exchange said Monday.

The mobile-based equity trading is particularly prevalent on the secondary tech-heavy KOSDAQ. The ratio of “buy or sell” orders via mobile gadgets to the total came to a record of 25.06 percent as of Oct. 28, compared to 21.27 percent at the end of 2014.

In 2010, the KOSDAQ saw the share of mobile trading stay at 3.8 percent. Most of the trading took place on home-based PCs or laptop computers and phone-based automatic response services.

The percentage of home trading systems dropped from 57.41 percent to 54.68 percent over the first 10 months of the year.

Mobile trading has also been active for stocks listed on the benchmark KOSPI of the Korea Exchange. The main bourse saw the smartphone and tablet-based trading rate increase from 10.7 percent to 15.55 percent over the corresponding period.

“Mobile-based trading is expected to further increase fast as some local brokerage firms are waiving service charges for customers using their mobile platforms,” said an official of the Financial Supervisory Service.

“Despite the concerns over their profitability, they are in close competition to attract more customers by providing the service free of charge,” he said.

Among the firms are Samsung Securities and Korea Investment & Securities, both of which are expanding the mobile-based trading platforms.

Others such as KDB Daewoo Securities and NH Securities waive the fees for off-line customers under other conditions.

The daily trading volume on the main and secondary bourses has continued to fall this year in the wake of worries over a potential interest rate hike in the U.S. and a plunge in Shanghai stocks.

As a result, the fee exemption could also be attributable to bearish equities, to prevent a massive deposit withdrawal by individual customers, said the FSS official.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)